Harry (left) and Alfie (right) of Hudson Taylor have revealed Boyzone tried to split them up – but Sting and Paul Simon were more encouraging (Picture: Polydor/Universal)

Exclusive: Rising folk duo Hudson Taylor have told how Boyzone told them to give up hope on music stardom before Sting swept in and told them to chase their musical dream.

Well-connected brothers Alfie and Harry first tried their luck on an Irish reality show where Boyzone’s Shane Lynch was a judge before they took off on YouTube and ended up supporting The Rolling Stones.

‘When we were younger we did attempt one of those shows called the All Ireland Talent Show,’ Alfie, 20, said in the lads’ first ever chat with Guilty Pleasures.

‘Shane Lynch from Boyzone tried to split us up, which is funny. He basically said that I was the stronger singer,’ he went on, but 21-year-old brother Harry put down Shane’s lynching to TV drama.

‘There was one shot where I might have had a slightly grimaced face and they chopped that in where he said “I think you should be the frontman” to be more dramatic.’

However the boys have since proven the Boyzone star wrong, topping the iTunes charts in Ireland, bagging a support slot with The Rolling Stones after to follow the advice they once received from family friend, Sting, instead.

‘When we wrote our first song Sting gave us a critique. He said: “I was listening to the song and I don’t remember if there is a bridge.” Since then we’ve always thought “we need to do something with the bridge!” He told us that three years ago, but it’s been in our subconscious,’ Harry explained.

And Sting isn’t the only music legend to give advice to the name-droppers.

‘People often ask us what a song is about and we don’t know. But Paul Simon said to us, “I don’t even know what The Sound of Silence was about”,’ Harry said.

But the Hudson Taylor boys insists unlike their famous idols, they record their music without the haze of weed in the studio.

Alfie insisted: ‘It is easier for us to be in a room and buzzing off each other, but it works for others to smoke cannabis or whatever. But not us.’

New single, Weapons, by Hudson Taylor is out now under Polydor records.